A Comparison of Radiation Versus Convection Calibration of Thin-Film Heat Flux Gauges

Abstract A transient, in-situ method was examined for calibrating thin-film heat flux gauges using experimental data generated from both convection and radiation tests. Also, a comparison is made between this transient method and the standard radiation substitution calibration technique. Six Vatell Corporation HFM-7 type heat flux gauges were mounted on the surface of a 2-D, first-stage turbine rotor blade. These gauges were subjected to radiation from a heat lamp and in a separate experiment to a convective heat flux generated by flow in a transonic cascade wind tunnel. A second set of convective tests were performed using jets of cooled air impinging on the surface of the gauges. Direct measurements were simultaneously taken of both the time-resolved heat flux and surface temperature on the blade. The heat flux input was used to predict a surface temperature response using a one-dimensional, semi-infinite conduction model into a substrate with known thermal properties. The sensitivities of the gauges were determined by correlating the semi-infinite predicted temperature response to the measured temperature response. A finite-difference code was used to model the penetration of the heat flux into the substrate in order to estimate the time for which the semi-infinite assumption was valid. The results from these tests showed that the gauges accurately record both the convection and radiation modes of heat transfer. The radiation and convection tests yielded gauge sensitivities which agreed to within ±11%.